My parents attacked and robbed in their house

At 04h30 on 2 October 2008 I woke up from a phone call from my dad. They had an armed robbery in their house in Queenswood, Pretoria.
They've been tied up and assaulted and threatened for one and a half hours. My dad was hit over the head with a gun a number of times. My mom was tied up separately and had made peace that her time to die has come. (Some of their friends were murdered in this way.) After they left, my dad (locked up) managed to awake a neighbour to come and rescue them.
The robbers got away with their car filled with a lot of their property.

(Most South Africans of all races are affected by violent crime. I've been the victim of a car-jacking less than 5 years ago. My best friend was murdered in his flat after visiting me. A good friend in my church was shot and killed in his house a few years ago. I can't keep track of how many of my relatives and friends were victims of violent crime in South Africa.)

My brother, Arno, immediately drove the 6 hour trip from Hluhluwe to come and help our parents. My family left for an FFI (http://www.familyfi.org) course and a holiday in kwaZulu/Natal. During this time I read "The Shack" by William P. Young (http://www.theshackbook.com). It is an amazing piece of spiritual fiction: Mack's 6-year old daughter was abducted and killed. Years later Mack has an amazing encounter with Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit.

I was still brooding vengeance thoughts about those criminals who attacked my parents. I didn't want to forgive though I've been involved in ministries for more than 25 years where we see the positive results of forgiveness in many lives. After reading "The Shack" it was easy for me to forgive.

Another experience: After my traumatic experience of the car-jacking, I went to post traumatic counseling with a person who used some of the methods taught by Ed Smith in Theophostic (http://theophostic.com). In the prayer time I experienced God's supernatural answer almost word-by-word the same as in a certain chapter in "The Shack"! It is amazing what God is still doing for His children - and how much we are missing due to our lack of experiental knowledge of His love and character.

On a lighter note: When the criminals left my dad's house, dad prayed something like: "Father, please let those men realize they are on the wrong way and make them turn around". Almost at that time, the driver of the robbed car realized he was fleeing down a dead-end street. He made a U-turn and crashed into a pole!!!
Later that day a tow-truck recovered the crashed car with no authority. They also did not inform the police but contacted my dad a week later. Much of the stolen property was recovered including some stuff removed and hidden by the tow-truck employees!

Please keep on praying for healing of the trauma and fears of the incident. God is great!